Oficina Salitrera Humberstone
A nitrate-works town founded in the late 19th century that supported Chile's saltpeter industry. It had a school, a theater, a hotel, a market and even a swimming pool said to have been built from ships' steel plates, and around 1940 some 3,700 people lived here. As synthetic fertilizers spread, demand for saltpeter collapsed, and the works closed in 1960. The dryness of a desert where it almost never rains has preserved the buildings, and the theater's wooden seats and the pool's steps are still there. It became a World Heritage Site in 2005 and is now open to the public as a museum.
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